GL12 Racing continue to win fans for their KTM two-stroke team

GL12 Racing KTM continued the mission to expand its two-stroke fanbase with another strong showing at rounds four and five of the Power Maxed Arenacross Tour in Belfast’s SSE Arena.

Going against Europe’s leading specialist indoor racers, both James Dunn and Mike Kras put in strong performances and although neither made a Main Event they continued to impress against the more powerful four-strokes.

Mike shocked the Belfast crowd on Saturday night when he holeshot his second heat ahead of French indoor specialist Charles Lefrancois and Russian MXGP star Evgeny Bobryshev.

The same night James came close to making the Main Event but narrowly lost out to two-time British champion Elliott Banks-Browne in the LCQ head-to-head races.

“The Belfast double-header was a great weekend for us,” said Team Principal, Bob Buchanan. “We achieved what we are trying to achieve in this series and the buzz around the pits about my boys on the two-stokes is so positive.

“The other team managers, mechanics and riders are coming up and congratulating the team and riders on just how ‘on it’ we all are. They didn’t expect us to be close and when you’ve got Mikey holeshotting a heat race and putting up fifth fastest time and Jimmy having a nail-biting head-to-head with Elliott Banks-Browne – which was exciting, close and fair – the buzz just gets bigger.

“This isn’t specifically our thing – we’re doing it for team building, for rider sharpness and bike time – and for all of these reasons it’s a winner.”

“Arenacross is so much more harder than I thought it would be,” Kras opined. “In practice I am right there with fast lap times but if you are slightly off the pace in the evening races you miss out. When I finally took a holeshot in my heat race I went wide in the first turn and got pushed off the track.

“For the next rounds I just need to carry my practice speed into the night programme. I am learning but I would like to learn faster!”

“Belfast was crazy,” Dunn exclaimed. “I struggled on the Friday night with a 10th and a seventh so didn’t make it through to the final so it was great having the chance to race again the following day and get the extra bike time in.

“I felt a lot more comfortable on the Saturday morning in qualifying, put myself in a slightly better position on the start for the night show and scored an eighth and a seventh in the heat races to get into the head-to-heads.

“I was up against EBB first – we had a mega battle right to the line but I just missed out. Still, we’re having fun and learning every weekend.”